NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan hosts a meeting to prepare for APPF 26 (Photo: Le Tuyet)

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, President of APPF 26, said gender equality is an important goal, a measure of a society’s development, and a reflection of women’s contribution to the development of every country. She said the meeting helped to build a network and increase women parliamentarians’ presence and influence. “The Vietnamese National Assembly chose the theme of the meeting as “Promoting gender equality for sustainable development and prosperity” to create a forum for women parliamentarians to discuss the role of the parliament in realizing international commitments and institutionalizing national law. We hope that the meeting of women parliamentarians will become an annual APPF event. Member countries, including Vietnam, have made a great effort to deal with emerging challenges. I hope the delegates will propose initiatives to create a favorable environment for promoting gender equality in Asia-Pacific”.

The parliamentarians suggested amplifying the voice of women in different areas by giving them more rights. Karelova Galina Nikolaevna, Deputy Chairwoman of the Federation Council of Russia, said: “In September in Russia, we organized a forum on women entitled “Women – sustainable development and global security”. We discussed every issue related to women. We considered the forum an important opportunity and invited female parliamentarians in the region to the event.”